


Perchance to Sleep

by Palebluedot



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Pillow Talk, Sharing a Bed, nobody fucking look at me. the devotion got to me.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:28:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28618065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palebluedot/pseuds/Palebluedot
Summary: “Where do you think you’re going?” asked Zagreus. Their movements had long grown lazy and slow, but he could sense that bit of tension tugging Thanatos out of bed, towards what he needed to be dressed and gone. “You’re tired, I can tell. Stay a moment.”
Relationships: Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 185





	Perchance to Sleep

Hypnos, for all his faults as doorman, performed his older duties with remarkable potency. Most times, his influence was contained to his immediate surroundings – a yawning shade, a drowsing dog. Others, it spread around the corners of the whole house like a heavy, perfumed fog. And sometimes, when Zagreus had earned a smile from the Fates, such occurrences coincided perfectly with another welcome visit.

“Where do you think you’re going?” asked Zagreus. Their movements had long grown lazy and slow, but he could sense that bit of tension tugging Thanatos out of bed, towards what he needed to be dressed and gone. “You’re tired, I can tell. Stay a moment.”

“I have duties to attend to,” said Thanatos, softening, but still worried. Still those lines between his eyes. “Mortals are waiting to depart.”

“Let the river carry them. Just for a little while.” For the Styx was always waiting, always flowing, always following its course. On its own, it could shepherd every soul, and still boast endless open waters. Death was, above all, inevitable.

Zagreus had thought of this often when they were younger, wondered why there was a god of death at all in the face of such an ever-present force. Death seemed to just...happen, with or without Than’s guidance – lately, he would know. So, since he wasn’t strictly necessary to bring death into being, Zagreus had decided that Thanatos must be there to make it into something that _cares_. He was death that grew a face to greet the dying, legs to walk alongside them, arms to lead them on their way –

– or to wrap around another tired body, sinking low into the down. “A little while,” he echoed, eyelids already falling. “Then I really ought to go.” But his nose tucked against Zagreus’s collarbone and stayed there, as slowly his worry flowed away with speech, with thought, with sight.

Smiling, Zagreus kicked away a corner of the bedcovers, so his burning feet might not turn their bed into a furnace. Then at last he laid his own head down. His own side of the pillow was cool, but wouldn’t be for long. And when he opened his eyes again, he knew he’d find himself alone. That was the way of it. Because that was Than, too selfless to oversleep, or to long set down his scythe, or even to wake him up to say goodbye.

 _I_ _should ask him to_ , thought Zagreus. _It’d be nice to see him off_. But he felt how still Than was, loose-limbed and heavy beside him, and, well, he didn’t care to wake him. So what if he was something of a hypocrite.

So instead he laid awake himself, while he could manage it, fought against the always-waiting dark to savor it all a little bit longer. He’d been through hell for this, after all, and he intended to enjoy it. The cold embrace, the sweet release – he was told mortals often spoke of death like that, with such reverence and longing. If they only knew how close they’d hit the mark.

As Zagreus finally began to slip away after him, their bodies pressed close, Than’s hand splayed a little wider over his chest in sleep, as if somehow he knew. Perhaps he did. Hypnos was, of course, his brother, and their domains not so different. Whatever the reason for it, the feeling coaxed Zagreus into pulling his eyes open just one more time to glance fondly down at the head of silver hair resting on his shoulder.

 _See you soon_ , he thought softly, because it was always true. Then that, too, dissolved into darkness, and together they heard not a sound from this house that drew no breath.

**Author's Note:**

> they uh. really got to me. brb gotta go kill my dad to advance the plot of this dating sim.
> 
> Comments are love!


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